1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container for holding a printing fluid material, which is capable of communicating with a printing device via radio waves.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some of ink cartridges attached to a printing device, such as an ink jet printer, have a memory that stores cartridge-related information including the production number, the production date, and the unsealed date of the ink cartridge and ink-related information including the type and the residual quantity of ink held in the ink cartridge. Some of these ink cartridges also have a sensor that detects the status of ink, for example, the residual quantity or the temperature of ink. One proposed technique directly measures the status of ink by taking advantage of a piezoelectric element, as disclosed in, for example, Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 2001-147146. The prior art ink cartridge transmits various pieces of information to and from the printing device via communication, so as to manage the cartridge-related information and the ink-related information.
Communication of the ink cartridge with the printing device is typically established by electrical connection between them. This prior art ink cartridge may, however, have difficulties in stable communication, due to a loose connection of a connection terminal. A recently proposed technique for stable communication utilizes radio waves to establish wireless communication of the ink cartridge with the printing device. This technique does not allow the ink cartridge to directly receive a supply of electric power from the printing device via wire. Operating circuits in the ink cartridge are thus driven, for example, by means of an electromotive force induced by the radio waves received from the printing device.
The ink cartridge is an expendable and the simplified circuit configuration is naturally desirable. This issue is not restrictive in the ink cartridges for holding inks therein but is of great importance in containers for various printing fluid materials or flowable materials, for example, in toner cartridges for holding toners therein.